DAVID JONES BUSTED IN HANLEY FOR BREACHING COURT ORDER AND POSSESSING ILLEGAL IMAGE

In November 2018, David Jones, a 54-year-old resident of Hanley, found himself at the center of a serious legal case involving breaches of a court-imposed order and possession of inappropriate material. Jones had previously been subject to a stringent 10-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), which was put into effect in 2010 following a disturbing incident where he performed a sexual act on himself while in contact with an 11-year-old girl via webcam. This order strictly limited his access to the internet, allowing only for work-related purposes, in an effort to prevent further offenses and protect potential victims.

However, the law caught up with Jones when a routine visit was made to his home in Hanley by an officer from Staffordshire Police’s sex offender management unit. During this visit, the officer observed a mobile phone and charger in Jones’s possession. The device was subsequently examined, revealing that the internet search history had been deliberately deleted, with only the data from the previous day remaining. This raised suspicions of potential misconduct, especially given the context of his previous offenses.

Further investigation uncovered a photograph stored on Jones’s phone depicting an 11-year-old girl, dressed in a skirt and tights. When confronted, Jones immediately claimed, “I just said hello to the child and have not harmed her in any way,” attempting to downplay the significance of the image. He also admitted to deleting data from his mobile device, which he claimed was due to boredom and a desire to hide his online activity. During police interviews, Jones stated that he used the internet to pass the time at home, acknowledging that he had no logs of the people he communicated with and that he had arranged for individuals to visit his address, though none had shown up.

Jones insisted he had no idea who the girl in the photograph was and suggested that he must have accidentally downloaded the image. His claims were met with skepticism, given the evidence of the photograph and his prior history. The court heard that Jones had been unemployed and living alone, with his defense attorney, Hamish Noble, emphasizing that his interactions with the girl had been limited to a simple “hello.”

Despite his guilty plea to breaching the SOPO between January 1, 2018, and October 2 of the same year, Jones faced a sentencing hearing at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court. The judge, Recorder Baz Bhatia, acknowledged that Jones had largely complied with the court’s orders for nearly seven years but had, in the last ten months, accessed the internet via a mobile phone, regularly deleting evidence of his online activity, including chat line visits.

As part of his sentence, Jones was handed a two-year community order. This includes 150 hours of unpaid work, participation in an accredited program for 60 days, and a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement. The court’s decision reflects the seriousness of his breach and the ongoing concern about his conduct, emphasizing the importance of monitoring and rehabilitating offenders to prevent future offenses.